Sunday, July 25, 2010

Cake Ball Strawberries

Cake Ball Strawberries

I had the honor of co-hosting a baby shower for my brother-in-law and his girlfriend. They are expecting their little girl in September. Their nursery theme is watermelons and strawberries, so we decorated my mother-in-law's house to match for the shower. I finally had an excuse to try out this idea that had been rolling around in my head.

Stats:

Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix

splash of Coffee Mate's Vanilla Caramel coffee creamer

white chocolate colored red

fondant calyx

The tutorial for making cake balls will have to come another day. I was slightly pressed for time and couldn't take all the pictures I wanted. Essentially, I baked up a normal 8" round of red velvet box mix. After it cooled, chunks of it went inside my itty-bitty food processor (I really need to buy a new one). It took several passes to grind up the entire cake, but eventually I was left with a bowl of beautiful deep, dark red crumbs.

Typically I mix in some left over icing as a binder, but I forgot to make my icing (for cupcakes) before doing this. So I tried using coffee creamer (as many have suggested on cakecentral.com). Not sure where my French Vanilla went, so the only thing I had was Vanilla Caramel. These are the liquid creamers that you keep refrigerated. Only about 2-3 oz. of this stuff went in since the cake was already pretty moist.

I shaped clumps of crumbs with my hands until they looked like a strawberry. Best thing at this point was that strawberries normally don't look perfect anyway. When all the crumbs were gone, I had a couple trays of cake balls. A flat toothpick was inserted into each one where the calyx would be.

These were put in the freezer for about an hour.

A while back I bought some red powder food coloring. After melting several boxes of Baker's white chocolate, I mixed some coloring until I got a deep pink. Buying Wilton's red candy melts would have been simpler, but I thought this might taste better.

+

=

It took a while to get a groove going when dipping these little darlings. I tried using a fork and a spoon, but the best way I found was:

hold cake ball firmly by toothpick

insert cake ball into melted chocolate

rotate cake ball slightly until the entire thing has been covered by chocolate

very slowly extract the cake ball straight up

as it is being pulled up, vigorously wiggle or spin the cake ball (the excess chocolate will slide down into the vat easily and evenly)

lay on its side gently, holding it in place for a moment while the chocolate smooshes against the surface and thickens

The strawberries were left on the table overnight so they could firm up. The next morning I topped and packaged them up.

I had a batch of marshmallow fondant (MMF) for covering cookies. I mixed some of that with an equal part of Satin Ice green fondant so I could get a yummy taste and a light green color. My Wilton Course 3 Student Kit came with a calyx cutter that was the perfect size.

I heated up the left over pink chocolate. Carefully (otherwise I'd smear the chocolate), I picked up the cake ball and put it inside a little baking cup. I slid the toothpick out, which kinda broke off some crumbs. With a chopstick, I put a dollop of melted chocolate over the hole that the toothpick made and then stuck the calyx on top.

I had so much fun making these. They made it to the shower intact with only a few problems. Unfortunately, it's July in Texas. The temperature changes from going from house to car to house made the chocolate a little funky. I don't know the term for it, but some areas developed light-colored spots. The baking cups got a few grease spots.

When I brought them over, the house was a buzz with setting up for the party. At some point, my mother-in-law tells me that she brought out a glass serving plate for my strawberries. I had to say, "Oh, those aren't strawberries ... that's CAKE."

Everyone loved them. Unfortunately, they were all gone when the party ended ... I had to take home my less popular left-over desserts.